In the wake of the deadliest church bombing in the country, Bishop Joseph Coats sent a note to an Italian association named Aid to Churches in Need, stating that Pakistan "is one of the most difficult countries to live in for Christians."
"The daily lives of religious minorities in Pakistan are characterized by poverty, injustice and discrimination. Non-Muslims are identified as second-class citizens in school textbooks. Teachers repeatedly ask students to write essays titled: write a letter to your friend encouraging him to convert to Islam," according to the Italian AKI agency.
A member of the Pakistani Christian community holds a placard as he shouts slogans during a protest rally to condemn Sunday's suicide attack in Peshawar on a church, with others in Lahore September 23, 2013. A pair of suicide bombers blew themselves up outside the 130-year-old Anglican church in Pakistan after Sunday mass, killing at least 85 people in the deadliest attack on Christians in the predominantly Muslim country. |
Blood,
body parts and pages from the Bible could be seen at the church and
after the attack, Pakistan's Dawn newspaper called it "the deadliest
ever (attack) targeting Christians in Pakistan."
About 400
worshippers were exchanging greetings after the service at the
130-year-old All Saints Church in the city of Peshawar when the two
bombers, each carrying about 6kg (13 pounds) of explosives, launched the
attack.
"I saw myself in the air and then on the ground inside a huge fire of
ball," Sabir John, a church member who lost one of his arms in the
blast, told The Guardian."I've never seen such piles of human
bodies," Arshad Javed, chief executive of Peshawar's Lady Reading
Hospital, told Wall Street Journal.
All Saints Church comes under
the Church of Pakistan denomination, a united church that is part of the
Anglican Communion and a member church of the World Methodist Council.
There
are about 70,000 Christians in Peshawar. The community accounts for
about two percent of the 180 million people in Pakistan.
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